Hickory syrup

[LeeB]

Lindy was telling me on the phone that she read an article about making syrup from hickory sap. The article said shag bark worked best. Said you do it just like tapping a maple. Anybody ever heard of this before?

[SwampDonkey]

Sure, why not? It's sugar content isn't as high as sugar maple, but you'll get sap. Need good freeze thaw cycles though, 20 to 40 F in that range is best. If the sap starts getting cloudy as it exits the tree it's not so good unless filtered. Here we used to quit when it turned that way. Just used to boil on the electric stove, but some hard on the elements. Wish I had some good sized yellow birch.

[JimMartin9999]

What ? Can you make syrup brom yellow birch , too? 
What other trees are good for syrup?

[SwampDonkey]

butternut. 

[Two-Lady-Sawyers]

What dia. would the yellow birch and butternut have to be?

[tmroper]

SwampDonkey,
A friend of mine married a young lady from canada and she got me spoiled on Maple syrup.  I can't even hardly stand the imitation stuff anymore.  I have even been known  to make a roadtrip up to the border to buy a fresh batch. 

[SwampDonkey]

What dia. would the yellow birch and butternut have to be?

Personally, I wouldn't tap a tree under 12".

A friend of mine married a young lady from canada and she got me spoiled on Maple syrup.  I can't even hardly stand the imitation stuff anymore.  I have even been known  to make a roadtrip up to the border to buy a fresh batch. 

You got it bad. But, this isn't fake in anyway. It's just not maple syrup and I hope no one expects it to have maple flavoring. Come on now.

Your yellow birch will have a hint of molasses.

[tmroper]

Swampdonkey
When I said I can't hardly take the imitiation stuff anymore I am referring to the maple flavored corn syrup you get in the grocery store.   

[SwampDonkey]

I knew that, but I couldn't help myself. An emotional earth weakness of mine. 

[SwampDonkey]

I have a yellow birch in the back yard, a spile and need to find a bucket for some birch sap. Today is going to be a good sap run. I'm gonna set a 3 gallon caner under the spigot, boil'r down in the shop.

[SwampDonkey]

I did some further reading and it seems the yellow birch begins to run later than the maples. Today the maples are leaking sap about anywhere there is a fresh break or wound. The yellow birch is still dry. Some accounts say that the boiling process removes the wintergreen taste, as the methyl salicylate that makes the flavour is volatile. In boiling, looks like it can take from 125 litres up to 200 litres of yellow birch sap to get 1 litre of syrup. If I ever get any boiled down I'll let ya know. That's a lot of boiling.

Some people talk about making yellow birch wine to.

[tmroper]

I look forward to hearing how that turns out.

[Reddog]

Just watch you don't burn the birch syrup. It has a lower scorch point than maple.

[DanG]

Well now that y'all have barked up wrong trees of other species , I'll tell ya what I found out about the subject of this discussion.  It turns out that you don't make it from the sap at all.  Hickory syrup is made by boiling a large quantity of hickory bark in water.  You boil it all day, then strain out whatever liquid is left, add sugar, and boil it some more.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2646/

[Tom]

I'm so sorry for you folks.  It must be really bad up there.  I new that Michigan was in trouble, but I didn't realize it was the whole of Canada too.  I hadn't realized that y'all had resorted to eating trees. I've got some friends that might have a little cane syrup left over from the boilings last fall.  They might see it in their heart to send some up that way.  Do you need anything substantial, like meat or potatoes grits?   I'll get on the phone with the Red Cross and Salvation Army First thing in the morning.  

[WDH]

We all may have to start eating trees  . 

[SwampDonkey]

Dang, why would you go through that mess, when you could just boil the sap? Don't expect the same flavour maybe. Perhaps they never reasoned that hickory makes sap to. Sure is an interesting process, thanks for looking it up. Now we know what some folks mean by hickory syrup. According to Lee's wife she did read an article, it was the sap being boiled for the syrup. But, you can't believe all you read I suppose. I know how I'd make it though.  

WDH, never know.

Don't drink raw sap if it's gone cloudy and not too much otherwise unless you want a laxative.

[SwampDonkey]

Just watch you don't burn the birch syrup. It has a lower scorch point than maple.

I was thinking it might with all that extra boiling. Will have to watch closely. 

Make any?

[Reddog]

Some friends in AK would make it every once and a while. I have always seen it made from paper birch sap.
I see the pro's have started using reverse osmosis to remove most of the water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_syrup

[SwampDonkey]

I also see them baking birch beer by distilling the black birch sap.  Well, if they can do it with black birch, so can they with yellow. Can I borrow your still?

I'm just an old fashioned pro, not too sophisticated either.

[bitternut]

I cut quite a bit of black birch for firewood every spring and it runs sap like a burst garden hose. I like to cut it when the sap is running because the wood burns hotter. One of these days I will have to try making some syrup from a couple of the larger trees.

[SwampDonkey]

Same with yellow birch when we cut with brush saws, smells like a mint candy factory.

Birch isn't running here yet, I have a tap in a 20" birch in the back yard.

[bandmiller2]

I thought the birch beer was made from the crushed twigs and small branches,of Betula Nigra black river birch does the yellow birch have the same flavor??Myself I like the bunker oil grade of maple syrup the cheaper dark stuff seems to have more flavor,the clear stuff is for tourests.Frank C.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes it does on both counts. Yellow birch tastes like wintergreen, just as black birch (cherry birch) does. That's how you tell really young ironwood O Virginiana from yellow birch. When tree is older, bark is good enough. We don't have black birch in my region.

[WDH]

I love the smell of black birch, Betula lenta.

[LeeB]

I wonder if you can make hickory beer. I made some root beer a couple days ago and sampled it tonight. Coming along nicely.

[SwampDonkey]

Try it. 

[SwampDonkey]

Just turned on the tap at the yellow birch. 





Began running since the recent rain.

[WDH]

Save some for when I come up to visit you  .  Syrup that is......

[LeeB]

Does it taste like hickory? 

[Dave Shepard]

I've made black birch tea from the bark. Not bad, but I was disappointed it didn't taste like it smelled.

[SwampDonkey]

Does it taste like hickory?

Tastes like sap at this point.

[SwampDonkey]

I've made black birch tea from the bark. Not bad, but I was disappointed it didn't taste like it smelled.

Yeah the wintergreen is an essential oil that disappears with heat. Gotta distill it so it gets captured.

[SwampDonkey]

Well, here's a 2 litre batch on to boil, should get maybe 50 ml of syrup. 

Let'cha know. 

[SwampDonkey]

How we doing? This is after 1.5 hrs boiling. Gotta boil some more.

[SwampDonkey]

Reduced to 150 ml of sap. Ginger ale color at this point.

[SwampDonkey]

I am here to say that yellow birch tastes very similar to molasses, but with a distinctive taste to it.  My only trouble is I need more production. One tap just don't cut it.

My uncle tells me that during the first world war the Scottish settlers in what we call the "Scottish Colony", or the "Colony" for short, tapped birch for sugar because it was rationed during the war effort. There is a lot of birch in the "Colony". It was mostly white birch they tapped. It takes quite a bit of boiling down. I only got about 1/2 an once of syrup from 2 litres of sap, and that was not boiled down to a syrup thickness. 

Molasses birch toffee on snow, now wouldn't that be some good stuff?

[chainspinrunner]

I have a friend who made syrup from Basswood. Boiled it in a hollowed log. He did the experment for a college course. He told me it was the Native way?? The syrup looked more like bog water, but did have a distinct syrup taste!